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Oklahoma head football coach Lincoln Riley speaks during a press conference at the Big 12 Football Media Days in the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas on Monday, July 17, 2017. (Rose Baca/The Dallas Morning News)

Not even Riley could imagine the comparisons would extend to his tone and cadence in his first press conference Monday at Big 12 media days at The Star. Some thought Riley's inflection was remarkably similar to Stoops', at least as much as a 33-year-old from Muleshoe can sound like a 56-year-old from Youngstown, Ohio.

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Riley even got a question about it, which served as a nice transition to just how much of Stoops will -- and should -- be part of his coaching DNA.

"That will be one of my challenges is to find a way to still be myself but not discount all the lessons from him and the other guys that I've worked for and with over the past several years," Riley said.

"I told somebody earlier, had I left and taken a head coach [job] somewhere else, I would have carried a lot of things that [Stoops] does with me just because I think he's really good, and I think it's kind of proven the test of time."

Riley clearly was the story du jour as media days began, with the two other new coaches -- Texas' Tom Herman and Baylor's Matt Rhule -- in Tuesday's lineup.

Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby remembered the late Donnie Duncan singling out Riley as a rising coaching star even before Riley landed at Oklahoma in 2015 as offensive coordinator.

OU athletic director Joe Castiglione made his first trip to media days in half-a-dozen years to support his new coach.

"Candidly, it's what we expected after watching him for the last two years," Castiglione said of the transition. "He's been fantastic."

Much has been made of Riley's youth. Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury, who was also 33 when he was hired in Lubbock, suggested it's not merely age.

"There are a lot of challenges whether you're 33 or 43," Kingsbury said. "There's so much that piles on your desk that in the past you took down to the head coach. It's just knowing that the buck is going to stop with you no matter what."

Riley made sure to reach out to returning players following the sudden June 6 retirement of Stoops, who had 190 wins and 10 Big 12 titles.

"I wasn't the guy that came in and recruited them, and I don't feel like they should have to accept me just because now I'm the head coach," Riley said. "I feel like that's something that I should have to earn, and I told them that I would give them every ounce I have to get that done."

He also plans to reach out to Stoops when necessary.

"I'm comfortable with myself and being myself," Riley said. "I don't have an ego in this, and say, 'Well, I've got to change things just because I'm the head coach, and I don't want to seem like I'm just trying to be Bob Stoops 2.0.'

"I want to use the things I think are right. And if there's a few things I think fit my personality better or can help us as a team, then I'm certainly not going to hesitate to do those, either."